John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday in the Dáil, the Minister said the climate crisis is the greatest crisis facing our generation. As a result of my role in this Chamber as the Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on climate action, I wish to focus the majority of my remarks on the climate action measures we put forward in the budget yesterday.

The budget had measures in it that were transformative in terms of the green aspect. It will help us to make the move as a society towards a green economy and, more importantly, a low-carbon society. We did that through a whole range of measures. When I look, however, at the amount of effort governments around the world put towards the Covid-19 crisis, I believe we need to take the energy we are putting behind the Covid-19 crisis and move that towards climate action because that is the greatest enemy the safety of this planet is really facing.

When we look at the carbon tax we have increased, the Minister said yesterday that not one single cent or euro will go to Government expenditure, it will go right back to Irish citizens to help the most vulnerable in our communities reduce their carbon emissions and footprint and insulate their homes. We saw that with the retrofit programme which, as far as I am concerned, is one of the most ambitious projects in this budget whereby we will be able to retrofit homes right across Ireland and reduce people's energy bills. Overall that will benefit our climate.

We have put €109 million into the warm homes scheme which will go towards the free energy upgrades of people from low-income families and backgrounds. We are talking to businesses about the targets they must reach and how they can go about meeting those reduction targets.

Equally, the grants for electric vehicles are substantial. We have seen grants for home and public charging points and, more importantly, we have seen even more investment than ever going behind our national infrastructure network. We make the transition to electric vehicles simple by making it simple for individuals to make that change. We are doing that by putting substantial money behind it.

I will conclude because I do not want to take any more time away from colleagues. This was a transformative budget in terms of green issues and transforming our economy and society towards a greener economy. That is what we must do if we have any chance of this country meeting its required targets by the end of this decade in 2030.